Can or should sociology be a science? What are the arguments for and against the idea?

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Introduction

﻿Chloe Slater Can or should sociology be a science? What are the arguments for and against the idea? Sciences are based on guidelines in which it must meet in order for it to be a science. First of all it needs to have subject matter which will be studied. Then there must be a theory construction in which an explanation will uncovered. Furthermore, the hypothesis must be tested based on a prediction. Finally, a science uses empirical methods in which to collect the data. Many people would argue that Sociology doesn?t fit this criterion. Positivists would say that society has an objective reality and that our behaviour is subject to external forces. ...read more.

Middle

He also says that the way in which Sociological experiments are illustrated in a way which is similar to how a science experiment is written in school. This shows that Sociology also has similar ?headings? to the way science is taught in schools. This suggests that Sociology is evidence based and involves subject matter in which gives valid and reliable results. Realists would say that Sociology could and could not be classed as a science. It could because some experiments can be held in the laboratory like many scientific experiments. They also believe that the way Sociology is classed, e.g. based on observations, is similar to other subjects which are deemed sciences, for example, meteorology and engineering. ...read more.

Conclusion

They would also argue that humans can?t be generalised effectively therefore any results recorded would be unreliable. This would imply that it cannot be classed as a science. In addition, Feminists would reason that there must be just one truth to an argument, whereas sociology provides many different outcomes to just one subject. This suggests that sociology is not a science because it doesn?t have just one answer. In conclusion, positivists believe that sociology can be classed as a science because it is similar in the ways a scientific subject is classified. Whereas Interpretivists would argue that is cannot be classed as a science because there are too many answers and contradicting statements which will not be able to conclude a final answer. ...read more.

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uncertainty of anomie which led Durkheim to conclude that the act of suicide is the result of human's reaction towards external stimuli. Therefore, positivists argue that since social facts are like scientific facts which can be objectively observed and measured, scientific methodology can and should be appropriate to sociology.

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Positivists thus employ methods to allow maximum objectivity and thus use quantitative methods. These methods also produce reliable data that can be checked by other researchers repeating the experiment. To show that sociology was a science with its own distinctive subject matter Durkheim chose to study suicide.